HealthlineNews

'Oxy,' the Heroin of the 21st Century, Under Scrutiny

Over the course of 16 years, fatal overdoses from prescription painkillers increased seven-fold, especially among urban white males.

For a long time, heroin was the chic way to overdose on opioids, but
urban adults are setting a new trend toward “designer” drugs straight
from the pharmacy.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration—the
agency responsible for approving and regulating prescription
drugs—states that in 2009 alone, more than 15,500 Americans died after overdosing on narcotic pain relievers.

Prescription
drug overdoses kill more white and Hispanic men each year than suicide
and motor vehicle accidents, according to a new report from Columbia
University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Researchers used
data from New York City’s chief medical examiner’s office for the period
1990-2006, and found that during that 16-year period, the rate of
overdose from analgesic opioids went up seven-fold. The findings were
published last week in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

“This
has been seen as much more of a rural problem, but these numbers show
that it is much more of an urban problem than we believed,” Magdalena
Cerdá, DrPH, lead study author and assistant professor of epidemiology
at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, said in an interview with
Healthline. “We need to address the use of prescription drugs in urban
areas.”

A Specific Type of Opioid

A class of opioids
called analgesics, which includes codeine, hydrocodone, morphine, and
oxycodone, are most commonly used as pain relievers. They are often
prescribed for chronic pain or intense, acute pain, such as a broken leg
or post-surgery pain. They are also highly-addictive.

Before
the appearance of opioids in prescription form, opiates were either
smoked or injected as heroin. Drugs that require smoking or injecting
are unlikely to attract the same crowd as prescription opiates, Cerdá
said.

“I do believe a big misconception with these drugs is that
people believe they are safe because they are not illegal, so they don’t
carry the same stigma that heroin has,” she said. “Part of [the purpose
of] this study is to raise awareness that this is a growing problem
among adolescents.”

The use of prescription opioids is nothing
new. They’ve appeared in the lyrics of hip-hop songs by Little Wayne and
Macklemore and in documentaries such as The OxyContin Express. Long
before they entered pop culture, prescription drugs became popular among
youth because they're relatively easy to get. Often, they’re sitting
right in your medicine cabinet.

Researchers are most concerned
about the sheer number of pills circulating through major metropolitan
areas that are being consumed for recreational use, not to treat pain as
prescribed by a doctor. More research will be required to identify
exactly where the pills originate and how they circulate through
communities.

Cerdá said that prescription opioids are the
second-most used drugs in America, with marijuana being the first.
However, there are many prevailing misconceptions about prescription
pill abuse and its deadly consequences.

The Biggest Misconception

The
stats read like the plot of a Bret Easton Ellis novel: white, affluent
males taking pricer pharmaceutical drugs they believe they are safer to
use than street drugs.

The Columbia report states that whites are
nearly three times more likely to overdose on analgesics than any other
race, and the deaths associated with overdose occur in areas with high
income inequality.

“A possible reason for the concentration of
fatalities among whites is that this group is more likely to have access
to a doctor who can write prescriptions,” Cerdá said. “However, more
often than not, those who get addicted have begun using the drug through
illicit channels rather than through a prescription.”

Researchers
noted that analgesics are cheaper than other opioids like heroin, and
that their use is fueled by the mistaken belief that prescription drugs
in general are safer than street drugs because they come from a
pharmacy, not some guy you went to high school with.

Combating Overdoses

The Columbia researchers made the following recommendations to help curb opiate misuse:

regulate the aggressive marketing of potent drugs like Oxycontin

control the over-prescribing of analgesics

take stricter measures to regulate drug sales

increase law enforcement measures to identify illicit distribution networks for these drugs

provide educational outreach for physicians and patients

Cerdá recommends that parents speak to their children about the dangers of all drugs, including those made in a laboratory and prescribed by a doctor.

“When
parents are talking to their kids about drugs, it’s an important lesson
that they talk about prescription abuse as well,” she said.

Regulators
are also beginning to take note of the rise is prescription painkiller
abuse. In January, an FDA advisory panel voted 19-10 to impose greater
restrictions on access to hydrocodone, the active ingredient in Vicodin,
but the FDA has not said if or when it will follow the panel's advice, USA Today reported.

Healthline’s mission is to make the people of the world healthier through the power of information. We do this by creating quality health information that is authoritative, approachable, and actionable.

Join more than 30 million monthly visitors like you and let Healthline be your guide to better health.